Location
White Bear Lake is in Ramsey County William H. C. Folsom, in his Fifty Years in the Northwest (1888, on its p. 545), wrote of the Dakota name as follows: "The Indians called this a grizzly, polar, or white bear, and named an adjacent locality [now a village on the northeastern shore, in Washington County] 'Mah-to-me-di,' or 'M'de, i. e., Mahto, gray polar bear, and M'de, lake. It is not probable, however, that a polar bear ever reached this spot, and a visit from a grizzly is nearly as improbable. Indian legends are very frequently made to order by those who succeed them as owners of the soil." From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
